Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => The Environment => Topic started by: clueless on 15/06/2012 19:27:06
-
I have a question about rain clouds. In scene from the film Powder, it started to rain heavily, yet a nurse technician didn't get wet. He was standing about a meter away from the heavy rain. Was that Hollywood or that could actually happen in real life? Or the rain near the tech should've drizzled instead? Thanks.
-
When driving I've certainly gone from nothing to pouring rain in less than a mile or so. And, I know that hail storms or thunder showers can be very selective in the areas they hit in St. Louis. However, the "edge" of a storm is often windy, and is usually moving.
Thinking of the midwest storms, I've also seen days where one could look at the sky, and it was like a straight line was drawn across the sky with half the sky cloudy, and half the sky perfectly clear. In fact, looking at the weather.com (http://www.weather.com) maps I've seen a very linear weather pattern that crossed half a dozen states across the midwest.
Anyway, I've seen films where they show a horrendous storm outside, but actors who apparently just came inside from being outside and were perfectly dry. Presumably the outside and inside shots aren't as well connected as one might expect.
Otherwise rain hitting the front yard, and not the back yard is usually due to a sprinkler system.
-
I have seen storm edges where neighbours, both with rain gauges in the back yard, had up to a50% difference in the rainfall in a storm. One registered 2mm, the other, 20m away, registered 1mm. Another about 1km away had sunshine, no rain at all.
-
Another about 1km away had sunshine, no rain at all.
1km is quite a distance.
When both my brother and I were in St. Louis, a few miles apart. One night my brother called me and one evening to comment on the spectacular storm. I agreed that I saw lightening flashing all around, but didn't get a drop of rain at my house.
That evening his house got pummelled with golf ball sized hail.
Tornadoes can also be quite focal with their damage.
-
I've certainly had an instance where it has been raining at the front of the house and bone dry at the back. But even where there is what might be described as a 'curtain' of rain, you would find some spits and spots falling on the dry side and wind fluctuation would move the curtain.
It sounds more like one of those infamous continuity bloopers (http://www.moviemistakes.com/best_continuity.php) that film makers manage so frequently, like the man in a blue shirt that suddenly turns white.